Strollers and carriages (hereinafter referred to as “strollers”) for the transportation of infants and small children have been in use for many years. Also in common use are strollers offering seating options for two children. Typically present day strollers are designed so as to have children seated in different and desired inclination angles and in a fixed-angle position facing frontward, in the direction of the advancement of the stroller. Various assemblies and designs have been developed for reversibly connecting two single strollers to a single double-seat stroller-unit, thus providing a choice of using a two-seater stroller only when necessary and increasing the ease and safeness of maneuverability when transporting two small children, not necessarily of the same age.
Given below are prior art patents listing different techniques for the connection of two single strollers to a single stroller unit:
In 1928 Chatfield R., in U.S. Pat. No. 1,707,186 invented a device comprising a stretchable wheel axis composed of a shaft with a sliding bar on which, at will, a single or two strollers could be positioned.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,938 Redmond T. and Redmond R. invented a device for connecting two baby strollers together consisting of a pair of bars or poll bracket units spaced apart and clamped between frames of the baby strollers so that a single person can operate the strollers simultaneously for transporting two babies therein.
In Patent Application WO2005/021351 Thompson J. and Peterson T. describe a device in which two strollers are reversibly connected by aligning and interlocking the front wheels of a stroller with the rear wheels of second stroller, thus more than two strollers can be connected in a column forming “a train” of strollers.
In GB 2,368,824 Colin A. describes a device comprising two independent strollers, referred to as “pushchairs”, that can be linked together in either a side-by-side or a column “train arrangement. The linkage is done by “securement members” that interlock the two strollers without any structural adjustments or changes in either of the pushchairs.
In GB 2,373,484 Sear L. and Croot C. describe a device comprising rails with a generally rectangular or tubular cross-section that reversibly secure and fasten frames of two strollers in a parallel side-by-side position. In the joint strollers formation one of the two wheels in the front and one of the two wheels in the rear may be inwardly folded by pivots so as to enable the maneuvering of single-stroller unit having just 6 wheels.
Typically, the present technology of connecting two strollers to a single stroller-unit, as described in the quoted patents, predetermines the fixation of the two strollers in either a side-by-side positioning or a longitudinal, “train” positioning.
In order to be conveniently store and easily transport various mechanical devices have been developed to enable the folding and collapsing of strollers. An example of such a prior art technique for folding is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,106 by Shamie L. in which a stroller comprises two side frames supporting a fabric seat between them; the frames having the ability to fold inwardly by a scissor-motion of a support structure that connects the side frames together. Typically in present day strollers, either collapsible or fixed-frame stroller-units, are composed so that the length dimension of the strollers is predetermined and fixed.
The advantage of a stroller in accordance to the present invention is the ability to reversibly connect two independent strollers to a single stroller-unit and when doing so to have the ability to choose a desired state, either a side-by-side or longitudinal, “train” position. In addition to determining the state of two strollers, it is possible in accordance to the device of the present invention, by varying the swirl-angle of the seats to determine the direction-position of two children in connected strollers, either facing each other, facing opposite directions or partially facing each other.
Another advantage of a stroller in accordance to the present invention is the ability to change at will the longitude distance between two connected strollers, thus having the possibility of reducing the footprint of the connected strollers by shortening the length dimension of the stroller-unit, facilitating better maneuverability when required.
The ability to change at will the distance between two connected strollers has a significant bearing on tempering with the interaction between the children in the strollers, a factor that can be of major importance in transporting children.